Warriors Heart
by Plantress
Summary: Saint SeiyaFushigi Yugi crossoverYui had thought the danger was past once Tenko was defeated.  She was dead wrong.  This world has gods and their warriors too.  Now the former Seiryu priestess is about to about to be pulled into their conflict. YuiHyoga
1. Prelude

A/N: And I finally decided to start thing. I wasn't going to work on this until I finished my other fic Second Chance, but I found a half finished chapter of this on my computer, and things took off from there. This started when I was reading the part in the manga where it shows Nakago blowing things up in Tokyo. A part of my mind wondered where Seiya and the other Saints where and why they weren't doing anything to stop Nakago. ;; That set off a though process that would eventally end in this fic.

There were many woman in this city, woman of all shapes and sizes. Yet one woman riding in a limo was confident that none were as beautiful as she was. Even if she hadn't had men staring at her as she walked, hadn't had women gazed at her in abject envy.

Her car passed a large sign that was advertising a new brand of expensive perfume. Her image was on that sign. The woman smirked. The world knew her as Venus, one of the most famous Greek models. It amused her to see that mortals worshiping her and not even knowing there were doing it.

"And this is why I should be in charge of the earth." Venus muttered under her breath. At last her limo reached her home, a lavish mansion that drew much attention. It was the way she preferred thing. As she neared the door, one of her servants opened it for her. She smiled. Her training had paid off him. When she walk past him the sever vent spoke.

"The young master has asked me to inform you that he has news about the….disturbance." Venus swung her head around.

"Did he say what kind of news?" She snapped. The servant shook his head.

"I'm afraid not my lady." With a snarl the beautiful woman stalked to her rooms. News could wait, she wanted a bath to rid of her of the stink of this mortal city first. Only after she had had her bath and her servants had helped her with her makeup and dress, and then done her hair did she feel ready to hear her underlings so called news.

She made her way toward the very back of the house. There was one dead end hallway that the servants were not allowed to enter. Venus walked toward the end of the hallway…and went right through the wall. On the other side was a portion of the house that most of her underlings never saw. She doubted they would have recognized this place as it was now anyway. The center had been renovated into one huge room that had columns placed on both sides. The floor and walls had been replaced with marble and the whole decorated with silk. At the end of the room a there was placed a large throne like chair. Walking into the room was like walking in to a temple.

It was exactly the affect she had wanted. She seated herself on the throne the waved toward one of the walls.

"You may come in now, Eros." A handsome young man walked out from behind a pillar. He smiled as he dropped to one knee before her.

"You look well today, Lady Aphrodite." He said.

"Enough with the pleasantries. You've found out information about what happened a few months ago?" The goddess snapped. That had nearly been a disaster for her. Nearly six months ago someone, a frighteningly strong human, had ripped a swath through a section of Tokyo. She has still been in the process of gathering her warriors and had just set up base in Japan. At first she though Athena had found her, then realized that annoyingly pure and righteous Athena would never attack civilians. She had assumed then that it was another god, one who wished to challenge Athena. That the massive cosmo of a god had appeared shortly after that seemed to confirm her suspicions.

At that time she had only two warriors at her disposable. Of them, only one was a real fighter and she did not want to waste Eros, so had been forced to sit and wait. After a time, the cosmo of another god had appeared…and then shortly after the other god had vanished. Then there was an explosion of cosmo and this new god had returned everything to the way it been before the warrior had started his rampage. No one even remembered that it had happened!

Aphrodite wanted to know who those gods had been, and most importantly she wanted to know why they had been able to command such power. Gods were not suppose to be able to affect the mortal world like that anymore. They all had their powers sealed and in order to affect the world had to descended and take on these disgusting mortal forms. But if there were gods that had managed to find a way around the rule, if there she could find them and get it to teach it to her…then…then she would be able to show everyone on Olympus that she truly was Athena's better and far more worthy of their attention then she was.

"Cassandra has managed to see something. She says she know the identity of those who appeared in the city." Eros said.

"And, who are they? From which Parthenon?" Aphrodite leaned forward.

"She wouldn't tell me, my lady. She claimed should only infrom you of what she has discovered personally." Aphrodite growled and stood up with a soft swish of her gown.

"Damn that annoying girl. She being contrary again" The goddess turned and stalked away from her throne, and headed toward a door that was conciliated by silken drapes.

"Are you coming or not?" She called to Eros. The young man stood and followed her into a long sloping hall. It lead down into a circular bedroom. Although the bed room was decorated as lavishly as the rest of the house, there were no windows here and the only way out was the single door that Aphrodite come. There was only one person in the room, a young woman who was sitting in a chair listening to some annoying pop song on the radio.

"Cassandra!" The goddess snapped. The young woman shut off the radio then stood and curtsied.

"Lady Aphrodite." She said softly, then looked up at her goddess. Aphrodite shuttered. The girl before her had once had a name other than Cassandra, but the goddess hadn't bothered to remember what it was. The moment she had convinced the girl to don the featureless mask of gold that covered the upper half of her face, she had become Cassandra and Aphrodite could care less about who she was. The mask itself had been a gift to her from Apollo. It enhanced the gifts those who were gifted with the ability to see the future and allowed them to see into the past as well. It was a valuable tool….but one that was highly unpredictable. The past visions it granted were nearly as unpredictable as the ones of the future, although the past was set in stone. And this Cassandra had a great gift before she donned the mask. With it she was some times able to control the visions. Aphrodite could not risk loosing her.

"Well?" She barked at the seer. "What did you find?"

"I saw that long ago that four or five gods grew tired to the restrictions that had been placed upon them. They wished to use their full powers, and the only way for them to do that was to pass their own divine abilities onto a pure mortal girl." Aphrodite hissed in disgust at the thought of a mere human allowed to wield the gods power. "But these girls were only able to use the power three times before the died from the strain. These gods grew tired to this. They decided to create their own world, one in which they would be able to use their powers as they saw fit."

"And did they? Did they manage to create their own world?" Eros asked eagerly. Normally Aphrodite would have punished Eros for speaking out of turn but she was to intrigued at the moment. To have the hubris to actually try and create a world….

"They create a world within ours. It was not truly complete, because it still relied on this one to survive. And I assume they failed. They still could not use their powers as they wanted to. They were trapped in this world they had created and they were still bound by the same rules that existed in this world. Because their world was incomplete they had to use what limited control they still had here to draw a girl from this world into theirs. That was the only way the could manifest."

"Very interesting, but why were they here, how where the able to escape?" Aphrodite snapped.

"They were not, or at least not totally. Seiryu's mortal priestess managed to escape back to this world by using the power the god had given her. It was she that summoned one of her warriors, a named Nakago to this world. He is the one that was causing the havoc."

"There were two gods out there girl. Did you find out who the other one was?"

"Yes. Suzaku's priestess was also in this world. She summoned that god and used it's power to seal Seiryu away, then used to it return everything to the way it was. Suzaku then returned to the book" Aphrodite sighed.

"So now I know that I won't have to deal with them causing trouble for me anytime soon." The goddess of love sighed. "It's not much but it's one less thing for me to worry over. Considering their using methods I doubt would work against Athena, the rest was of your information was useless to me."

"There is one more thing." Cassandra said quickly.

"It had better be good, girl." Aphrodite snarled.

"The souls of the warriors that Seiryu commanded are not at rest. They were drawn to this world by the priestess but when the god was sealed. Now they cannot find their way back to their world, and because there are not truly of our world, but from a mere shadow of it, Hades will not let them into his relem."

"What does that have to do with me?" Aphrodite glared, then stopped and let a small smile grow. "No…this might be of use to me." She nodded at the girl then turned and beconed Eros to her side as she left the room.

Outside Eros looked at her.

"If I may enquire…what are you think of my lady?" Aphrodite grinned.

"You heard Cassandra dear Eros. My Uncle does not want those souls. They are not affected by the rules since they are not suppose to exist in this world…so." Aphrodite smirked. "I don't see a reason anyone object to me seeing I could….give them a place to belong as it where." Eros smiled.

"I see no reason either. You are truly as wise as you are beautiful, my lady Aphrodite."

"Of course, I am Eros, of course I am."


	2. Chapter One

Hyoga wanted to go back to Siberia. He wanted to visit the place that held both the most memories of his mother, and that held almost all the memories of his childhood, both the good and bad ones. But the Cygnus Saint didn't dare leave Japan, not when they had no clue what was happening here.

It had been nine months ago. After the fight against Hades, when they had all recovered from their wounds even Seiya, Saori had given them leave to go where they wished while she remained behind to orginize the repairs of Sanctuary. Shun and Seiya had stayed behind to protect her, while he and Shiryu had left. The Dragon Saint had lost his master as well, and Hyoga knew how much pain he was going through.

He hadn't been in Siberia long when an urgent message had come from Graude Foundation telling him go to Tokyo now. Since it had been from Saori he had hurried back…only to find that everything was peaceful in Japan. Shiryu had been recalled too, but the brief annoyance that had was washed away when Saori explained the circumstances.

She had told them that one of the Steel Saints had sent and urgent message. A man with an incredibly powerful Cosmo, someone that rivaled a Gold Saint in power, was tearing through the city. The Steels Saints had offered to try and stop him, but Saori had told them to wait. The Bronze Saints had reached Tokyo as fast as they could…but found the city just as it as when Hyoga and Shiryu had returned. The Steel Saints had claimed to have no memory of sending the message. It has seemed to real to a simple prank, and then when Saori had looked at images from one of the satellites had clearly showed an area of destruction in the middle of the city. That area now showed no signs of damage. Saori also said there were the remains of the cosmos from two powerful gods still lingering over the city.

It had puzzled all of them. Had another god risen to fight Athena? Were they just biding their time until the right moment to attack? Everyone had stayed in Tokyo, waiting for an attack…one that never came. Weeks turned into months until after six months even Athena was tired to waiting around. They had all left once again, although this time Saori had ordered Nachi, Geki and Ichi to stay behind in case anything happened.

They had been gone for nearly a week when the three Bronze Saints had sent an urgent message. A the same time the media began reporting that a strange island had appeared just off the coast. They had immediately set off for Japan, but by the time they had gotten there, the island had been gone.

Once again there had been the linger traces of a gods cosmo in certain areas of the city. This time people remembered it, and although the city officials dismissed it as a mass hallucination, they knew what it really was.

It was too much a of a coincidence that these strange things had happened right after they left, then disappeared when they came close and that each involved gods that they had never seen. Athena had decided that she would stay here until she could discover something about these strange attacks. Marin, one of the highest ranked and most respected Saints left, had been put in charge of Sanctuary for the time being.

All this was fine but the threat seemed faraway now that there now and boredom had set in. Seki had been brought back to Japan in the hopes that it would help jog her memory some more, while even Shunrei had turned up after Saori had sent a message to her. The Chinese girl had been worried about Shiryu and was now trying to help where she could. Not that there was much for her to do. Aside from a rash of strange incidents before that strange island had appeared, there was nothing. It was become frustrating and Hyoga kept longing for the plains of Siberia.

He had taken to walking around the city out of restlessness. He had stopped by this empty park to rest and think. The Cygnus Saint was sitting on a bench, head titled back as he watched the clouds go by when a voice spoke up behind him.

"Hyoga? What are you doing here?" The blond tilted his head back so he could see the speaker.

"Probably the same thing you are Shun." Hyoga straitened as he spoke then turned to face the Andomdea Saint.

"I guess." The younger boy was dressed for running, and was still breathing slightly heavily. He smiled. "Well it's not like we have else to do I guess." Shun walked over and sat down on the bench too.

"Has there been any kind of news?" Hyoga asked his friend. Shun shook his head.

"No change when I left. We're still no closer to finding out happened here."

"I hate waiting like this." The Cygnus Saint said. "And I hate not knowing who were fighting. Even knowing that a mad god or goddess is trying to destroy the world is better then not knowing who our enemies are or what their up too." Shun nodded sympathetically.

"I wish something would happen." Hyoga finished .

Almost as if Hyoga had summoned it, a dark cosmo appeared in an alley near the two Saints. Shun and Hyoga jumped and stared at each other in disbelief before taking off toward the alley. They cosmo had had appeared was full of hatred and rage. Hyoga had no clue who had just appeared but it was clear that it was an enemy. They reached the alley way only to find nothing there.

Suddenly they felt the cosmo moving away at a high speed. They looked at each other.

"Should we tell someone?" Shun asked. Hyoga shook his head.

"No time!" Shun nodded and the two took off after the strange cosmo.

Both Saints stood and stared at the high school in front of them. It was hard to believe that a building this normal held their quarry.

"Hyoga, this is right, isn't it?" Shun asked, the uncertainty clear in voice. The Cygnus Saint nodded. He could feel the dark, savage feral Cosmo they had been tracking had finally stopped here and he knew that Shun could as well. It just seemed odd when compared to the incredibly peaceful scene of students exiting their school at the end of the day. Hyoga watched them drift off as Shun looked thoughtfully at the building.

"Now what do we do?" The younger boy asked. Several students walked by, and more than one turned to stare at them, then whisper something to their companions.

"We could try going inside. I don't think whoever it was could hide for long with both of searching for him." Hyoga answered. Shun looked at him then shook his head.

"I don't think that would work very well. What if whoever we're tracking is a student or something?" Shun pointed out. Hyoga winced but agreed. He doubted that even the name of Saori Kido would spare them if the just walked in and grabbed a student. Somehow he doubted the teachers would listen when they talked about Cosmos and threatening auras that most people couldn't see or sense.

"I guess we'll have to figure something out." The Cygnus saint said. As he finished, a group of girls from the school walked by. They had been whispering with each other and as the got neared the two Saints one of the group pushed her friend out in front. The unfortunate girl gulped the waved shyly at Shun. The Andromeda saint sweat dropped, but waved back smiling uncertainly as he did so. The rest of the girls squealed, then ran past the two of them, grabbing their friend as they did so. Hyoga smirked.

"Don't say anything." Shun muttered. Then he looked back at the school. "Whoever it is hasn't moved in a while. We could go back and get the others." He suggested. Hyoga thought for a moment.

"You go back and get the others. I'm going to stay here and keep track of whoever this is."

"Good idea." Shun nodded. "I wanted to tell Saori-san about…." The Andromeda Saints sentence was cut short but both the feminine scream that rang out from the back of the school as well as the sudden rage and bloodlust that suddenly erupted in the strange cosmo. Both Saints reacted without thinking, and sprinted towards the sound of the scream. No one stopped them as students and teacher ran past them, headed for the gates and babbling about monsters and wolves as the did so.

Yui turned as she rounded one of the schools corners. She had forgotten one of her books outside during Lunch and had only just no remembered were it was. A sudden sound behind her caused her to turn just a something large slammed into her.

"YYYUUUIIII!" The ex-priestess sighed.

"What is it Miaka?" She asked her friend. Maika sniffed as she hung on her friend.

"Mr. Tanaka's-giving-a-quiz-tomorrow-but-I-don't-know-what-we-talked-about-today-because-I-fell-asleep-in-his-class-and-that's-why-his-giving-the-quiz-and-I-need-your-help-to-study!" She wailed in a rush. Yui sweat dropped then smiled and shook her head. Miaka never changed.

"Alright. I don't have anything else to do today. Let me get my book and then we can go home to study."

"Yui!" Her friend looked at her with a huge smile and tear filled eyes.

"But that means we can't stop by Taka's work!" Yui held up her hand to stall her friends denial. "Don't you need good grades to keep your Mom off your back about having an older boyfriend?" Miaka winced but nodded as the two continued toward the tree were the had eaten their lunch. "Cheer up, maybe Taka can come and help us after he gets back off work."

"He will!" Miaka said perking up immediately. "I'll call him right now!" Her friend whipped out her cell phone and was already calling Taka before Yui could even sweat drop.

"Ummm, Miaka…." The former-Suzaku priestess ignored the blonde, instead listening intently to the rings on the other end, until her face fell.

"He's not answering!" She said and glared at the phone.

"Doesn't his boss make him turn it off when he starts work? You were complaining about it the other day." Yui reminded her friend. Maika sweat dropped.

"Oh yeah." Miaka shut of her cell phone and sighed. Yui grinned.

"Lets go to my house. We can get started, then you can call Taka when he gets off of work." Maiak still looked down. Yui shook her head then brought out her ultimate weapon. "A client sent Mom a thank you gift of a bunch of cakes. She said that she doesn't eat sugar, but can't let them go to waste, so I can do what I want with them." Miaka's head came up fast her eyes widened. Then she grabbed her friend wrist.

"Come on Yui! Studying is the most important part of a students life you know."

"Hey Miaka quit dragging me around…." Yui sentence was interrupted my a vicious howl suddenly echoed off the school buildings. All the students froze. The others were looking around for the source of the noise in curiosity, while Miaka and Yui had gone pales, memories of a world that was not this one entering their minds. Miaka laughed nervously.

"There must be some one playing a prank." Yui nodded. It couldn't have been him, he died in the book months ago and Seriyu's been sealed anyway…..

"Come on Miaka lets go." Yui started forward then froze as something behind her swelled, an auaur of death and destruction welling up behind her. Heart hammering she turned around just as something dark leapt at the two of them. She yanked Miaka to the ground and something scythed over their heads, leaving grooves in the cement school building. A stone chips stuck her cheek drawing blood. Yui looked up, and meet a pair of mad eyes.

"Ashitare." She whispered as someone screamed. The werewolf turned his head toward the sound then apparently whipped his head.

"Priestess." He growled and Yui wasn't sure if he was talking to her or Miaka. She had only seen the wolf-man once or twice when Nakago had decided she need to see him.

"Ashitare" She said firmly and stood.

"Yui?" Maika asked, but the blond ignored her friend.

"I am a the priestess of Seriyu. I order you to tell me what your doing here!" She wasn't even sure Ashitare remember who she was, but she had no other ideas. She doubted she and Miaka would be able to out run him and she knew he had managed to kill a one of Miaka's warriors. They needed time, and if she could just convince Ashitare that she was till Seriyu's priestess…

"Seiyu..is no more. That's what she said.." The werewolf growled. "So…I don't have to listen to you!" Ashitare lunged forward, Yui stumbled backwards and then

"Diamond Dust!" Someone shouted. Ashitaure jumped backward as a blast of cold almost hit him and two young men leapt between them and the wolf man.

"Are you alright?" The boy with green haired asked them. Yui nodded. He smiled.

"Good." He turned around. "You two had better get out of here now."

"Yui!" Maika scrambled over to her friends side. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Yui assured her. She stood and puller her friend to her feet.

"What?"

"Lets go." Yui tugged on her friends hand. "Come on.."

"But…" Miaka glanced back at the two boys, swallowed and then ran in the opposite direction with her friend.

Hyoga heard the girls run away. That was good, now he wouldn't have to worry about them as well. He kept his eyes on the enemy they had been tracking. He had faced many thing since becoming a Saint but never something like this.

"Who are you?" He asked the…man before him. He….no it growled and lunged at him. Hyoga leapt out of the way of it's claws and wished that he had brought his cloth.

"Hyoga, are you alright?" Shun asked.

"Fine." He called back. "But it doesn't look like this thing is going to be answering any questions."

"Yeah." Shun gulped. "What are you?" The wolf didn't answer but started to charge again.

"DIAMOND DUST!" Hyoga's attack hit the creature dead on, and slammed it into a wall. The Cyngus Saint relaxed only to realize that the creature was climbing to it's feet again.

"It's still alive?" Shun said stunned. Hyoga prepared to launch another attack. Whatever this wolf-thing was, it couldn't be allowed to attack innocent people.

Before the Cygnus saint could finish, a bright light lanced into the round in front of him. Hyoga and Shun leapt away on reflex, just before the ground exploded. As they landed Hyoga caught a dust obscured figure landing next to the wolf creature.

"Who are you?" Hyoga yelled. The figure said nothing as it reached over and threw something over the beasts head….then both disappeared. The two Saints rushed forward, but there was nobody there.

"Teleportation?" Shun guessed as the scanned the area. The sounds of sirens came from behind them. Hyoga glanced back.

"We had better get out of here." The Cygnus Saint said firmly. Shun nodded and the two left as quietly as they could.


	3. Chapter Two

"So let me get this straight….something just showed up and attacked a school?" Seiya scratched his head. "That doesn't make any sense." The Seiya and Shiryu had joined Saori in the study to listen to the report of the other two Saints.

"Are you sure about this?" Saori sighed.

"We're sure. What ever it was…." Shun shook his head. "I'm not sure it was even human." Hyoga nodded.

"It was a beast." The Russian Saint said firmly. "But he's not the one I'm worried about. The man that showed up after I attacked him…." Hyoga leaned forward. "I think he was more dangerous. The beast-mans cosmo was savage….but it that powerful. My next attack would have defeated that thing. The man that saved him though….his cosmo was very powerful."

"And neither of us noticed the other man until he attacked us." Shun added.

"That is worrying." Saori stood from her desk and walked over to the window. "But at least this proves that our enemy is somewhere in Japan. They have started to move again and this time we will be here." The Saints all nodded.

"But I still don't get it…why attack a school?" Seiya scratched his head. "It doesn't make any sense…."

"Maybe because it's not suppose to." Shiryu said suddenly. "What if it's suppose to random?"

"What?" Seiya blinked. "Why would they….?"

"To confuse us." Saori said nodding. "So that we will know that there in Tokyo, but have no idea what there doing."

"So what are we suppose to do?"

"…We still don't know who this enemy is. Until we find that out we can't do anything."

"So were just suppose to sit here and wait for them to show up again!?" Seiya jumped up. "We can't do that!"

"They what do you propose we do Seiya?" Saori turned to look at him. The Pegasus Saint paused then dropped back down on the chair he had been sitting on.

"I know we can't really do anything yet….but I don't like sitting around here."

"No of us do Seiya." Shun said gently.

"The Steel Saints are still looking into the reports of strange activity that started to occur around the same time the strange island was reported." Saori said. "They're out checking those locations that were hardest hit now, but we haven't been able to find out anything yet."

"Who are enemy is now, they aren't acting like any of our previous enemies." Shiryu said thoughtfully. "They aren't going after us directly."

"We'll have to wait and see what they want." Saori said. "Until then I want you to keep an eye out. This time no one was hurt. We might not be so lucky next time."

There was a mutter of agreement from everyone in the room.

"Are you sure it was Ashitare?" Keisuke asked again. "You sure it wasn't a wolf or something like that….?"

"I'm sure Ni-san!" Miaka said around a mouthful of food. She swallowed. "You asked us three times!"

"I know, it's just that it seems unbelievable."

"But it's true!" Miaka cried as Yui sighed. They had gotten clear of the school to find almost everyone packed out front. They hadn't been the only ones running for safety thankfully, not everyone had seen Ashitare appear, but heard the massive explosion that had followed her and Miaka's escape. They had managed to blend in with the rest of the people milling around in front of the school gates before the police had arrived. After that she had dragged Miaka way and then she had called Tetsuya. After she told him what had happened, he agreed to find Taka and Keisuke, then meet her and Miaka back at his apartment.

"Are you it was that Ashitare?" Testuya asked. "Not some weird our world version of Ashitare." Yui looked at her boyfriend, and shook her head.

"No, he said 'priestess'. He knew what Miaka and I used to be." Miaka, finished with her comfort foot, was now clinging to Taka.

"Has Suzaku contacted you at all?" Taka asked. "Any more weird dreams or anything?" Miaka shook her head.

"No….but I don't get it! Why is this happening now!? We already defeated Tenko! Don't we deserve our peace and happiness? Why can't we be left alone!" Miaka buried her head in Taka's chest as the others looked on.

"Miaka…" Yui whispered. It did seem unfair but…they had to deal with it even though they had no idea what was going.

"Are we sure this has something to do with the Four Gods?" Tetsuya asked thoughtfully. Keisuke gave him a weird look.

"It as to! It's not like there's any other gods running around randomly bringing people to life!" Keisuke shook his head. "Besides Ashitare was a Seiryu warrior remember? This has to have something to do with the Four Gods!"

"But Suzaku hasn't contacted anyone." Testuya pointed out. "Before, no matter what weird things was happening, he at least tried to warn either Miaka or Taka. Now he hasn't shown himself at all, right?" He directed the last question toward the couple across from him. They both nodded.

"That's true." Taka said thoughtfully. "And like Keisuke-san said, Ashitare was a Seiryu warrior."

"But Seiryu's gone! I sealed him away." Miaka cried.

"He was with the other gods when the sealed away Tenko, wasn't he?" Yui said quietly. Miaka paused then suddenly her eyes went wide.

"But why would he come after us? And why would he bring back Ashitare of all people! And how is he able to affect our world!"

"I don't know how Seiryu is affecting this world but I think we might need to face the possibility that Ashitare isn't the only Seiryu warrior that was brought back to life." Everyone went silent as the thought of the other warriors. It scared Yui. She had spent the last year trying to make up for her mistakes and put the past behind her. She wasn't sure if she would be able to face any of the warriors if they had been resurrected. Tetsuya must have noticed her expression because he added rather hastily "But we don't know that for sure yet! Let's just keep our eyes open until we figure out what's really going on, right Yui?" He had such an anxious expression that the former Seiryu priestess had to smile.

"That's true. Miaka, will tell us if Suzaka contacts her or Taka."

"For now just be careful everyone." Keisuke sighed. "And if anyone sees Ashitare or something else strange, tell everyone. I'm going to go see if I can get a look at the Universe of the Four Gods book. If this really is part of it's story, maybe it's already started recording it." Everyone nodded, then they all rose slowly to their feet and left the apartment.

As Tetsuya drove her home, Yui stared out the window. Although she hadn't said anything out loud, she sympathized with Miaka. She did not want to be involved in any more battles against demons or gods. All she wanted to was live in peace but it seemed as if some was intent on punishing her for her sins. She kept getting being pulled toward the Four Gods, and now her past had come back to haunt her in a very real sense. They stopped at a red light.

"Yui?" She turned to find Tetsuya giving her a concerned look. He had taken off his sun glasses for once, a sure sign that he was serious. She knew what he was going to ask too.

"I'm fine." She said, cutting him off before he could fully form his question.

"Your not." He said firmly. "I know you like to keep things bottled up in side, but it's not good for you."

"I know." Yui admitted quietly. "But I'm not ready yet Tetsuya. Give me a bit alright?" She gave him what was a reassuring smile. From the look on his face it wasn't but since the light changed then Tetsuya didn't try to continue the conversation. He just reached over and took her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze.

A pained howl echoed around Aphrodite's thorn room as the goddess stormed in. She quickly located the source of the noise. Eros had the wolf-man, the first warrior that she had manage to create a physical form for, leashed to a pillar and was firing small golden darts at him. Although the attacks didn't caused much physical damage, the creature would writhe and howl with pain after each hit.

Aphrodite's lip curled. Normally she would care what Eros did with the ugly creature. He had only been an experiment, and one that hadn't yielded the results she wanted. The other souls she had found were much more powerful than his and she hoped would they would be far more intelligent and pleasing to the eye than this brute.

But Eros was torturing the wolf in her private sanctuary. She would not allow such and unsightly special to continue.

"Eros!" She screeched as she strode forward. Her warrior turned just in time to receive a back hand that knocked him to the floor.

"My lady." The leader of her warriors looked up startled. "I did not think you would return early." The beast, freed from it's torment for a moment, had curled into a whimpering ball on the floor.

"That is obvious." Aphrodite snarled. "Otherwise I seriously doubt you would be doing something like _this_ in my private chambers." She glared at Eros.

"I do not care what you do to this creature as long as it's alive to serve me. But from now on be sure to keep for amusements to your own rooms."

"That is not what I was going my Lady." Eros had managed to get his feet underneath him, but he didn't stand instead remained kneeling at her feet.

"Then what where you doing?" The goddess demanded. Eros shifted uncomfortably.

"I was punishing him for escaping earlier today." The man admitted.

"Escaped?" Aphrodite questioned sweetly. Eros nodded rather nervously. Aphrodite gave him an equal sweet smile. "Well then…" Her sharp toes shoe impacted Eros's stomach and launched the man back against a wall. He stood shakily to find his goddess quivery with rage.

"You want me to think that…that…_thing _managed to escape under your watch!? I though that I was careful not to choose incompetent fool to serve me. Apparently I was wrong."

"But Lady Aphrodite you left Adonis in charge of the creature!"

"Then he will be punished the next time I see him! But you…you are the leader of all my warriors! I gave you that title because I assumed as the most powerful of my warriors you were also the most capable. Perhaps I should have made Adonis the leader instead, since it appears you can't keep control of your underlings. Eros didn't say anything. He knew better than to protest against his goddess when she was angry. Speaking against her would only make her angrier. Aphrodite sighed.

"At least tell me nothing happened." She snapped and glared at him.

"He attacked a school." Eros was forced to admit.

"WHAT!?" Aphrodite turned toward him livid. "If he killed anyone…"

"He did my Lady." Eros said softly. "He was stopped by two men. Both had cosmos that were strong enough to have killed him. I don't know who they were but since they were no ordinary humans, I suspect they were two of Athena's Saints." There was a dangerous silence following his announcement.

"You mean to tell me" Aphrodite said in a dangerously sweet voice. "That you allowed two men who might be Saints to see you!?" Her voice rose as she spoke until she was screaming.

"No!" Eros said quickly. "They didn't get a clear look at me. All they saw was the beast before I teleported us away."

"Are you sure?" Aphrodite glared at him. Eros nodded.

"I am very sure, my lady." The warriors assured her.

"You had better hope you're correct. No one will every thinking of connecting such an ugly beast with me, but you had better keep a better eye on him." Eros muttered an agreement as she stalked over to where Ashitare lay.   
"And you had better remember who you serve now beast! I saved your life, and you will learn to obey those who are better than you!" The former Seiryu warrior growled, then lunged toward her. The goddess jerked back, just as a arrow that glowed with a black light went flew by her ear and slammed into the wolf-man, causing him to howl.

As Ashitare slid to the ground, bleeding from a hole that had appeared his shoulder Aphrodite turned to glare at Eros.

"I told you that I didn't want my temple to be messy!" She snapped. "Clean this up now!" Not waiting to even see if her subordinate agreed, the goddess turned and stepped away from the growing pool of blood. She would not allow herself to be soiled by that beasts blood. "And don't let him die!" She called back to Eros.

Much as she disliked the wolf-man, Aphrodite had put much energy into creating the physical from he now war. He had been experiment, born from the weakest of the souls she had managed to capture. He had proved that she was able to bring the souls of Seiryu's former warriors to life, something that she had been unsure she would be able to do. A satisfied smiled graced the goddess beautiful face. She had already started the process of reviving the other warriors. As soon as that happened she would send them after Athena. That way she would not be wasting the lives of the few warriors she had, and she would, with a little luck, be able to misdirect Athena. It was a satisfying thought, one made all the more so knowing that the strongest soul she had capture was almost fully revived. That was the soul was the one that had seemed to hold a power strong enough to rival Eros. Perhaps it's owner would prove to even more competent than he was.


	4. Chapter Three

It felt odd to be going to school the next day. It was even odder to think that it had only been a day since Ashitare had shown up. As Yui walked into the school yard she felt her thoughts wandering, and barely noticed when her feet did the same thing.

"Yui-chan?" Miaka called, snapping her out of her thoughts. The former priestess blinked, then realized she had begun to walk toward the back of the school. Yui froze then made up her mind.

"Lets go see what all the fuss is about." She called back to Miaka, and pointed at the crowd of students gathered in the back.

"Oh?" Miaka ran over to join her. "Isn't that where Ashitare was."

"Yeah, that's why I want to know what happened." But getting over to the area proved difficult. Students were pack so deeply around it, it took her and Miaka several minuets to get near enough to see what everyone was looking at. Yui sucked in her breath. Yellow warning tape surrounded a large crater in the ground, one that was very near where she had last seen Ashitare….

"Yuki-san!" A voice cried. Miaka turned.

"Kana-san! What happened?"

"Don't you know?" The other girl seemed surprised. "It's all over the school! Apparently there was a gas leak after school the other day and caused people to see a bunch of weird thing! Then the gas leak caused an explosion!" Yui had wondered what explanation they would come up with, but this one seemed a little…weak. Even if she hadn't known what had really happened.

"Really!?" Miaka sounded surprised "But…" Yui shook her head at her friend.

"Miaka…" She said warningly then dragged her the former Suzaku priestess away. "Don't say anything to anyone alright!?"

"But Yui, Ashitare might still be running around! What if he comes back, we have to warn everyone somehow!"

"And how are we suppose to do that?" Yui asked. "Tell everyone there's a wolf man on the loose? No one's going to take you seriously." When she saw that Miaka still looked worried she sighed.

"Look.." She said hitting her on the shoulder. "Ashitare is only after you or me. We'll just have make sure he doesn't get anyone else involved."

"Yui…" The blond tried not to show how scared she felt. This as not the world of the book. There would be no warriors to sweep in and save them if the wolf man did show up again. But…they would have to run. Yui did not want any more people to die because of her or Miaka. She had already caused enough suffering in the other world, she would make the same mistakes here. _But I don't want to have to make the decisions! I'm a normal high-school girl, I shouldn't have to think about dieing to protect other people! This is suppose to over._

"Yui-chan?" She shook her head.

"Lets get to class Miaka." She tried to sound cheerful, but unlike Miaka it as hard for her. "If something happens I'm sure we'll know about it!" They walked into the school. Her friend looked like she wanted to say something but by then they were surrounded by more students and she didn't get to say anything more than a 'see you later' as they split up to find their classrooms.

Yui walked in to hers and was greet with squeals and shrieks. She sighed. Most of the others students were staying far away from the knot of girls in the center of the room. As class representative it was her job to make sure they weren't disturbing anyone.

"I can't believe they were right here! They look even cuter in person!"

"Why didn't I see them! Club had to meet yesterday!"

"Did you talk to them…?"

"What's going on here?" All the girls looked up as she walked over.

"Ah, Hongo-san! It's just this picture that Kana took with her cell phone yesterday…!" One of them said.

"You mean of the explosion?" Yui frowned, wondering if one of the girls had managed to capture and image of Ashitare.

"No!" Kana sounded startled. "I had already left school by the time that happened! No, look who was standing outside the school gate!" The girl shoved her phoned in to Yui's hand. On the screen was a picture of two boys their age, one with bright blood hair and one with green. She started blankly at it for several seconds. The green haired boy looked vaguely familiar although she didn't remember meeting him before… _"Are you alright?" _ Suddenly his face, much closer and cleared than this flashed through her mind. Although she had been more concerned about getting away, she still did remember his face.

"You know who he is?" She whispered, wonder why the girls were so excited. They couldn't have seen what had happened, as far as she knew only her and Miaka had been that area when they two had rescued them.

"Of course! It's Shun and Hyoga! Don't you remember them Hongo-san?" Kana sounded surprised. Yui was forced to shake her head, although she felt as if she should remember them. "But they were famous a couple of years ago! They were in the Galaxian Tournament!"

That name Yui remembered. In the time that seemed like it was eternity ago, before they knew about the World of the Four Gods and before Tamahome, Miaka had been crazy about it. Half the guys had been really good looking that was why Miaka had stayed glued to the screen each time a new match was broadcasted. And she had been very impressed by the fetes of the boys in the tournament

__

"Wow! Did you see that Yui!?"

"Don't be too amazed Miaka, it's probably just a bunch of special effects and stuff."

"Ahhh…"

"Humans can't do stuff like that. The Graude Foundation probably just took a bunch of cute guys and hired them to fight each other for a publicity stunt."

"You take the fun out of everything….Kyaaa! Look Yui, it's Shun!"

That was what she had said, but that was before everything had happened. Before she had nearly been consumed by a God and seen the warriors that protected the Priestesses….

"Hongo-san?" Yui blinked and forced herself back to the present.

"Can you….send me the picture?" Kana looked startled then grinned.

"Sure!" The bell rang then and they all scrambled for their seats as the teacher walked in. For once in her life Yui wasn't paying attention to the teacher. She kept returning to that tiny picture that was in the camera. They had both jumped in front of her and Miaka yesterday. Now that thought back on it she didn't remember them being scared yesterday, at the very least they hadn't acted as if they were frightened of the wolf man in front of them _But why where they here? _

There had been a lot of hype about the Galaxian Tournament, but she hadn't really paid much attention to it. The only reason she had even watched it all was because of Miaka, and she had even really been paying attention during the broadcasts. Now she wished she had been. She vaguely remembered something they had talked about…about the constellations. _I'll ask Miaka about it. Maybe she remembers something. _

In the end she had to wait until lunch to actually find Miaka. When she opened the door to her friends class room, the former Suzaku priestess was still eating.

"Miaka!" She called. Said girl looked up and waved.

"Ewey-han!" Miaka said around a mouthful of food. She swallowed quickly. "What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk." Yui grabbed her friend's wrist and pulled her away from the girls she had been eating with.

"But my cream puffs..!"

"Later!" Yui dragged her out of the class room all together, then down the hall.

"Where are we going?" Miaka mumbled around a cake she had managed to grab as the left.

"Somewhere we can't he over heard."

"Yui…?"

"It's about Ashitare." Miaka didn't say anything else. Yui pushed opened the door that lead outside, and dragged Miaka out after making sure there was no one around.

"Are you sure we're safe out here?"

"We should be." Yui pulled out her phone. She showed Miaka the picture that Kana had took. "Here, look at this."

"Huh?" Miaka blinked. "Who are they? You aren't cheating on Tetsuya are you!?"

"Of course not!" Yui snapped. "Kana took that!" She shook her head. "Anyway don't they look familiar to you at all?"

"A little bit." Miaka squinted. "I think we've seen them before…." The brunettes eyes went wide. "Yui! These are the guys from yesterday aren't they?"

"Yes. Kana-san said they were out in front of the school when she left." Yui took a deep breath. "And she said they were in the Galaxain Tournament." Miaka's mouth dropped into an o and she looked at the picture again.

"Ehhh? It's Shun! I can't believe I didn't recognize them before! Do you know what this means?"

"What?"

"We missed getting their autographs!"

Yui groaned and smacked Miaka on the back of the head. "Be serious!" She scolded! "What this means is that all those things we thought were special effects were the real thing! Can you remember anything they said about these guys?"

"Not really." Miaka turned an accusing stare on her friend. "What about you Yui-chan? Your better at remembering stuff than I am!"

"I'm not the one who was a member of their fan clubs and sat so close to the TV screen I almost had my face pressed against it! Do you remember anything that might be useful"

"Ah." Miaka looked at the phone again. "Hey! I know why I didn't recognize them at first! They are wearing their armor!"

"Armor?"

"Don't you remember? Each of them wore these weird looking armor things…only they didn't call it armor they called it something else. The announcer said each of the suites of armor was biased…" Miaka trailed off.

"Biased off…?" Yui prompted.

"Off a constellation…" Miaka finished softly. Yui paled as Miaka looked up and meet her eyes.

"What does it mean, Yui? I mean they can't be like the Celestial Warriors…can they?"

"I don't know." Yui sighed. "Do you remember anything else about them?"

"Ummm…Shun was the Andromeda Saint…and Hyoga was a bird , I think a duck or something.."

"That's not that helpful And how did you managed to remember that when you can barely remember you home work?"

"Ehehe…."

Yui took back her phone. "But at least we know something…."

"Yeah…" Miaka sounded unsure still.

"Look…" The former Seiryu priestess said thoughtfully. "We have to let everyone else know about this."

"Taka's picking me up after club!" Miaka said. "I can tell him then!"

"Good idea. I don't have club today, so I'll tell Tetsuya, and he can tell your brother."

"Alright….but will you be alright by your self Yui?" Miaka sounded concerned.

"I'll be fine. If it makes you fell any better, I'll try to stay with the crowds on the way home."

"Alright…."

The rest of lunch, and the day, speed by. Yui frowned as she gathered up her things. She had told Miaka she would be careful, but she had been taking care to _ If Ashitare comes after me, I'm dead. _Her only hope was to stay near people and hope she could find some place to hide if he came after. _Not that it's likely….he tracked Miaka across half a city and managed to find us at school. _ She took a deep breath. _ Not point worrying now. I've faced worse. _ Her hand crept up and fingered the blue earring she wore almost constantly. It reassured her somewhat, and she picked up her bag. She had faced down a Nakago and survived….even if was only because of the help of someone else.

Outside she followed a bunch of other students out, wondering how she was going to find a way to stay in a crowd at all times. She guessed she could call Tetsuyua but…

A squeal nearby her made her jump. She looked over heart pounding and saw Kana jumping up and down looking excited. Annoyance at her classmate was quickly washed away when she saw where the girl was looking. It was them.

She had no way of knowing for sure why the two…what had Miaka called them again, Saint,…..where here again but she had a good idea. _ They must have come looking for Ashitare…._ No one had said anything about their being bodies in the back of the school, and given the way gossip traveled, they would have known if they had been trying to keep it quiet. _ I figured that they had all survived, I just did expect them not to be hurt at all! _ And they at least looked fine. They might have injuries that that she could see, but some Yui doubted that. If they had been that hurt then she didn't think they would come all the way here. Suddenly the blond, Hyoga, looked up a for a split second their eyes meet. She looked away quickly.

She did not want them to see her. A normal person wouldn't not have even been able to survive against a wolf-man who had killed a Suzaku warrior, let alone walk away for the fight unharmed. Even if she hadn't known that they had been in the Galaxian Tournament, she would have figured something was wrong. Until she figured out more about them she did not want them not notice her. Just because they had saved her life yesterday did not mean that they were 'good guys' . Nakago had driven that lesson home to her.

Yui was careful as she made her way over the gate. There were a lot of girls gathered there staring at the two, and though she had manage to avoid them by keep on the other side of the fan girls but her luck apparently ran out.

"Excuse me?" Someone touched her shoulder gently. Yui tensed, then forced herself to relax as he turned around, even knowing who she would see behind her.

"Yes?" She said trying to sound surprised. "What do you want?"

"Your from yesterday aren't you?" Shun said. _His eyes looks so gentle and he's so delicate…_ The thoughts flashed through Yui's mind when she saw the young man up close. Then she swallowed. Her first though had been to say that he had the wrong person, but she didn't think they would buy that.

"Ye.yes." She said finally. _If I act normal, I doubt they'll suspect anything. _"I want to thank you for yesterday. If you hadn't come by yesterday I think we would probably be dead right now."

"Your welcome." Shun smiled. "Where's your friend? Is she alright?"

"She fine…she's at club today." Yui looked down. "It's too bad though she would really have liked to get your autograph. She was part of your fan club." Shun blinked.

"Wha?" He said. "I rescued one of my fan girls?" There was a snort of laugher from behind him and he turned to glare at his friend. The blonde grinned then turned his gaze toward her.

"Do you know why that thing was here?" He asked. She felt her heart stop. _ Does he know something, but how could he Ashitare is from the world of the book. _She gave herself a mental shake and looked away.

"Hyoga?" Shun muttered.

"H..how would I know what a monsters thinking.." Yui said quickly. "It probably just attacked us because we were all alone." She chanced a peek at Hyoga. He was eyeing her suspiciously. She swallowed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go." She turned and began to walk away.

"Wait." Hyoga said and she felt him grab her shoulder. "Are you sure that you don't know anything?"

"YUI!" She had never been so relived to hear Tetsuya's voice before. He was standing at the end of the street waving at her.

"That's my _boyfriend._." She said putting emphasis on the word. "I have to go now." When she pulled away, Hyoga didn't try to hold her back, but she could swear she felt his eyes on her back until she reached Tetsuya.

"Hyoga, wasn't that a little rude?" Shun asked. The Cygnus Saint shook his head. They two of them had meet her more or less by accident when neither could stand to wait around the mansion any longer. He hadn't realized they might be find anything useful here. It was just luck Shun had seen one of the girls from yesterday. He hadn't been paying enough attention to have recognized her.

"She was hiding something, Shun. I'm sure you noticed it too."

"Well yeah, but couldn't that have been because she still in shock from yesterday? She was attacked by a monster after all…"

"I don't think so. It's almost like she was too calm. Like what had happened yesterday wasn't anything at all. Wouldn't a normal person who had just been attack stay away from the area? Even it was only for a day I think she would have been absent. I doubt she would be calmly going to school…and besides…." Hyoga narrowed his eyes. "Did you notice that when I asked her about the attack she went pale and wouldn't meet my eyes?"

"And she did try to leave right after that too…" Shun still sounded uncertain. "But still, what could she know? I didn't even sense any cosmo from her."

"I don't know." Hyoga sighed. "But at the very least, we know that she knows something about that wolf-man. And we have to find out what that is."


	5. Chapter Four

"You sure your no over reacting about this Hyoga?" Seiya asked.

"You didn't see the way she reacted to my question." The Cygnus Saint replied. "That girl knows something about what happened, she just doesn't want anybody to know it."

"At the very least I'll see if I can find out anything about this girl. Do you know her name?" Saori asked. The two Saints looked at each other.

"Someone called her Yui." Shun said at last. "But we didn't hear her last name."

"It's a start." Saori sighed. "I'll see if I can have the Steel Saints find out who she is, and if there is anything strange about her."

"And your sure they knew who you where?"

"They came after me even though they had a million other girls surrounding them. And the recognized me. So yes they know who I am." Yui said acidly, then winced. "Sorry.."

"It's okay" Miaka assured her, then turned to her brother.

"Ni-san, what do you mean there was nothing wrong with the book!?"

"Just what I said, there is nothing strange about the book." Keisuke rubbed his forehead. "The story isn't continuing and there's no sign that anything is well…wrong." He sighed. "Much as I hate to admit it, it looks like this has nothing to do with the Universe of the Four Gods at all."

"That's what scares me." Taka sighed. "If it was about the Four Gods, at the very least we would have been able to count on Suzaku and the other Celestial warriors. Now…." He shrugged.

"About that……did you manage to find anything Tetsuya?" Keisuke turned to his friend. Tetsuya scratched his head.

"Yui and I started working on this right after she told me everything but we haven't really been able to anything."

"We did find out that Hyoga wasn't a duck Miaka, he's the Cygnus Saint." Yui added.

"Cygnus?" Miaka looked confused.

"It means swan. Although I wouldn't expect someone like you to know that…"

"Shut up Ni-san!"

"Anyway." Tetsuya coughed. "I also managed find some footage from the Galaxian Tournament online."

"Really?" Yui looked at him surprised. "You didn't say anything about it to me."

"Because I found it just now!" The collage student set his laptop on the table. "Here. I'm not sure how much good it will do, but at least it's something." They were all silent as Tetsuya clicked the play button on-screen and the first fights started. The first fight while impressive, didn't show anything like the powers the Celestial warriors had been capable of. The second though…that was Hyoga's fight. That was when they saw the air turn cold, and the Cygnus Saint use ice to completely and utterly defeat his opponent. There was a gasp from Yui side when Hyoga first demonstrated his power.

"Miaka?" The former Seiryu priestess looked at her friend questioningly.

"The Genbu warriors that I got the first Shinzaho from….they used ice too." Miaka whispered. She didn't say anything about the fights after that but she did have something to say about Kido Saori, the girl who had organized the tournament.

"Ni-san, how old is she?" The former Suzaku priestess asked as Saori explained the tournament rules.

"Uhhh….isn't she about your age?" He answered. Miaka frowned.

"Wasn't the tournament a couple of years ago!?" She shouted. "How could some that age have a figure like _that_!?"

"Uhhh…" Keisuke sweat dropped.

"Miaka, pay attention!" Yui pulled her friend back down. "You're the only one of us who watched these thing before, you might notice something we don't!" Miaka grumbled but sat back down as the fight between Pegasus and Dragon started. No one said anything during that one, and finally it ran through the fight between Andromeda and Unicorn. The screen went blank in the middle of that fight.

"That's all the footage there is." Tetsuya explained. "Apparently whoever stole that Gold Cloth thing cut the power and the cameras all got scrambled."

"Well that settles one thing." Keisuke sighed and leaned back. "These guys are most defiantly not normal."

"We already knew that. Yui said that they weren't even scratched after taking on Ashitare!" Taka said.

"Do we an actual proof that they fought?" Everyone turned to look at Keisuke. "I mean, you didn't stick around to see what happened right? Since we don't really know much about these guys, how can we say they aren't involved in this somehow?"

"But Ashitare was from the world of the book!" Miaka protested.

"And we still don't know why he's alive!" Keisuke pointed out. "We have to be careful with this! Suzaku isn't going to be there save us if thing get dangerous this time!"

"That's true." Taka said "But we can't just sit here worrying about it. We'll have to try and figure things out first."

"Let's see if we can find anymore information." Tetsuya agreed. "Then we can try and figure out who theses guys really are!"

Several hours later Yui was back home getting ready for bed. As she showered, her mind wandered.

They hadn't been able to find anything about the Saint who had taken part in the Galaxian tournament. Aside from the information that was given to the fan clubs and the like, which was nothing more than height, weight, birthday, favorite food and that sort of stuff, they hadn't been able to find anything.

And aside from Miaka's outburst and several other viewings of the tapes they hadn't found anything really useful.

__

Useful would tell us what exactly is going and why these guys are here. I don't think it's just because they work of the Graude Foundation either. Everyone had known that they Saints were orphans brought in my the Graude Foundation to fight for them and Yui thought that might buy them some loyalty to the Foundation but….something didn't seem right.

"The Galaxian Tournament was expensive." Keisuke had said. _"It didn't make any sense as a plain promotional thing. What where they promoting? Graude Foundation was already famous enough they wouldn't need the help, unless this was some strange event to show how powerful they were."_

After the theft of the Gold Cloth, there had been no more coverage of the events and just a bunch of news articles that claimed the Graude Foundation had declared the Galaxian Tournament would be put on hold until the Gold Cloth was found….then that had faded into 'on hold indefinably'. Someone had gone crazy and set fire to both the Coliseum and the Graude Mansion. People claimed it was someone with money riding on the matches protesting the delay. That Yui could believe. She had heard her father complaining because he had a bet against someone in the office and he hadn't been able collect….

Yui finished her shower. As she walked into her room drying her hair, her mind drifted back to something Tetsuya right after he had unintentionally 'rescued' her.

__

"They weren't threatening you, where they?" Tetsuya had asked after she had told him what happened. _"You looked scared. Are you sure they didn't do anything to you?" _She had even know she looked scared. There was no reason for her to be scared of them, nervous maybe, wary yes but scared? They hadn't done anything to her yet. The only thing she could think of was that they scared her because they might be celestial warriors and if they were then it meant that the normal life she had been trying to build was going to come crumbling down. There appearance had just confirmed what Ashitare had said, that something was happening and she afraid that once again she would be helpless. Yui couldn't help but feel like there was an axe suspended by a thin string over head and when that string broke….. The former priestess shook her head.

"It's just your imagination!" She said as she brushed her hair. Despite the words, as she crawled into bed Yui could help but feel as if something was about to happen.

__

The lights were very close to her. She could sense too more, but they were far off and weak compared to the two that were near her now. One was brighter than the other, but the one that was dimmer didn't seem like it was any less than the brighter light. Suddenly both lights pulsed and the light they both emitted blinded her. An incredible presser came from either one and as they collided it felt as if she were being squished between two stones….

Yui's eyes snapped opened and she lay awake in the darkness for several minuets. Calm didn't come easily to her, even though she could tell why she had been so scared. The dream had been tame compared to her other nightmares but for some reason this once scared her just as much as they had.

"It's nothing." She whispered into the darkness. "It doesn't mean anything."

Hyoga fidgeted slightly as Sho went through the small pile of paper in his hand. He had managed to find out something about the Yui girl they had saved, and even though he said it wasn't much Saori had wanted to hear it. He had decided to see what was up too, and everyone else had joined him.

"There were actually several Yui's in the school, but the only blonde was one Hongo Yui." Sho said as he stood by Saori's desk. "We did a background search but found nothing. Actually…" Sho paused. "…she's a very good students. Top grades all the way through middle school, but then she failed her the exam for her first choice in high schools and was forced to attend her second choice school. She was elected student body vice-president in high school though."

"Okay that's interesting and everything but what's it have to do with us?" Seiya demanded.

"I was getting to that." Sho said, then flipped through the papers in his hands. "The only strange thing I could finds was a report her parents filed to the police during her last year of middle school. Apparently Yui-san was missing for nearly two days. She returned home apparently unharmed, and according to the police report claimed she had been staying at a friends house and hadn't called home. In high school she was treated for multiple cuts after a windows she was standing near shattered. None of the cuts were particularly serious and she soon returned to school."

"That's it?" Shiryu. Sho looked up.

"About Hongo-san yes, but we found something that might be of more importance. It involves her friend, Yuki Miaka"

"Friend?" Hyoga asked.

"Yuki-san and Hongo-san have gone through school together. Up until this year they were almost always in the same class and appear to very close. Yuki-san was probably the other girl that you rescued. And while we were searching for information about Yuki-san we found something…unusual."

"How unusual?" Saori interrupted.

"While we were looking into Hongo-san, we found that there was a number of mentions of a transfer student to their high school at the same time all the odd events started. This was several months before the strange island appeared. We wouldn't have taken any notice, but there was no record of a transfer student coming into the school. Also, although most of the students remember him being there they have trouble remembering any exact details of his appearance, other than that he was 'good looking'. Also, there were several cases were a class, mostly Yuki-sans class, in which all the students would suffer from a memory lapse. It never lasted more than one minuet. There was also a case where most of the school ended up on the rooftop, with no memory of how they even got there."

"Okay that is weird." Seiya said. Sho shook his head.

"That's' not all though. The reason we started investigating Yuki-san in the first place was because we found out that Hongo-san had been question when she ran away."

"Wait, didn't you say that Yuki-san was one of the girls we rescued?" A confused Shun asked. "Why as she there if she ran away from home?"

"She came back." Sho explained. "According to the report, Yuki-san had been visiting a resort with her boyfriend. Her older brother went to the room the day after they arrived to find both of them missing. When neither of them turned up, a missing persons report was filed. Although a search was launched, there wasn't much of priority placed on it. Since the boy friend, Taka-san, was older the police assumed they had ran off together. Two months later , the two turned up at Yuki-sans house. However, the two apparently appeared in Yuki-sans room. Her entire family was home though, and although there would be no way for them to reach her room without getting past them, and no one saw anything. And according to her parents Yuki-san seemed to think that she had been gone less than a week at most. They assumed she was lying, but due to the circumstances…"

"You think this has something to do with the island?" Saori interrupted. Sho nodded.

"Yuki-san returned home a few days before the island appeared. And when Hongo-san returned home from her absence a day before the first incident, she also seemed to appear in her room."

"That's too much of a coincidence for it to random." Shiryu said. "Did you find out anything else." Sho shook his head once again.

"Nothing. Even Taka-san appearance to be perfectly normal."

"So we've got a bunch of people who have memory lapses, mysterious disappearance and reappearances, and a couple of girls who apparently know something's going on….." Seiya ticked the points off on his fingers. He paused.

"You don't think they're the ones causing it do you?"

"No." Hyoga said firmly. "There was almost no Cosmo on Yui-san when I stopped her. Either she's very good at hiding her Cosmo, or she's an ordinary person."

"Whatever is behind this could be using them." Shun suggested. "If they didn't want us to find them, wouldn't it make sense to do something like that?"

"It would also be part of their plan to confuse us." Shiryu added. Saori nodded.

"That is true. Sho, I want you and the other Steel Saints to keep an eye on Hongo Yui and Yuki Miaka. This might be nothing, but there's a chance that the wolf-man that attacked them could come back. Have whoever isn't watching them see if you can find out anything else about the strange incidences."

"Will do Ojou-san!" Sho said before bowing slightly and leaving.

A day later Shun had wandered near the area where they had first sensed the wolf-man's strange dark Cosmo. Although they weren't suppose to be doing anything, he knew that everyone else had started a kind of informal search for the creature. None of them liked the thought of that thing wandering around amongst innocence's. Saori seemed to feel the same way because although she knew what they were doing, she hadn't said anything about it. It seemed unlikely and enemy that had managed to hide itself for months would slip up and draw attention to itself, but there was always a chance that it would. If that happened they all wanted to be in a position to take advantage of it if that occurred. The only thing Shun regretted was that he wasn't able to take his cloth along. He had seen the wolf creature, and while he was a Saint, he was still human and those teeth had looked sharp.

A sudden flash of brunette out of the corner of his eye caused him to turn. Sho had brought in a picture just to make sure that it had been Miaka-san that they had rescued. Hyoga had agreed with him that it had been the same girl, although Shun doubted he would have recognized the young woman who had just walked by him if he hadn't seen the picture first.

"Yuki Miaka?" He called out. The girl stopped and turned around.

"Yes who…" She stopped and just stared at him. And started…and stared….

"Umm…" Shun cleared his throat.

"Yo…your Shun-sama!" Miaka-san yelled, causing several people to look over at them, then quickly walk away. Belatedly Shun remembered Yui-san telling him Miaka-san was a fan of his….

"Um yes…."

"Can I have your autograph!?" A piece of paper and a pen was shoved under his nose.

"Okay…" Shun signed then looked at the young woman as she took the paper away from. "I'm glad your okay Yuki-san." He said. She blinked.

"Waiiiit a minuet….your one of the guys who was questioning Yui-chan!" She pointed at him. "I don't know what your after, but I'm not going to tell you anything about Ashitare!"

"….."

"….."

"Look we're just trying to figure out what's…." Shun started to explain.

"Ohohoh, look at the time!" Miaka said rapidly backing up several steps. "I have stuff to do now, you know very important stuff…." The priestess turned around.

"Wait!"

"Itwasnicetomeetyoubye!" She shouted over her shoulder as she ran over her shoulder.

"We're just trying to help…." Shun said as the young woman raced off. He sighed. At least he had gotten something out of it. "Ashitare, huh?"

Saori had gone to the headquarters that was underneath the rebuilt Graude Coliseum.

"Ashitare?" Athena repeated. She looked puzzled. "I think I've heard that name before…." Daichi had been there and he had started inputting it into the computer the moment Shun had mentioned. He jerked back from the monitor.

"Ojou-san!" He cried. "I found it!" Saori stood and made her way over to the Steel Saint's side.

"What does it mean?" She asked. Daichi gulped.

"It says that in ancient China the sky was split into four quarters. Each of these quarters was split into seven constellations that represent one of the four gods. Ashitare is one of the constellations the guarded the east….the direction that represents the dragon god Seiryu!"


	6. Chapter Five

Jessica sighed as the radio station she was listening to switched to commercials. Normally she would have changed it, but since she couldn't see what she was doing she didn't dare. She would never be able to find this station again if she actually messed with it and having to ask someone else to find it for her again was just plain embarrassing. The young woman reached up and ran her fingers over the cold metal that covered her eyes. The Mask of Cassandra. When Aphrodite had given it to her the goddess had promised it would let her focus what power she did have and help her become great.

She had told her that it would mean she would be blind and that only the goddess herself could remove it. Which she rarely did.

The sounds of a door opening made her turn toward what she knew was the only way out of this room. The door wasn't locked, she had tired it before, but she had never gone out of it. Aphrodite had warned her never to leave this room and besides….she was blind. What could she do even if she got out? She would just be caught and escorted back here. Then Aphrodite would come…and well she did not want to know what the goddess would do to her.

Someone came in, heavy footsteps coming close to her. Someone set a tray down on the table next to her radio, she heard the rattle and smelled the food. Then the person hesitated. She waited for them to leave but then didn't. She smiled.

"Hey, Lolonyo." She said. The man jumped a little.

"So you are awake." He sighed. "You hadn't moved so I didn't know…"

"I was pretending to be asleep."

"Oh." Then he reached out and touched her hand. "But how did you know it was me? I didn't say anything…" He sounded almost excited. She sighed.

"No it wasn't because of cosmo." She cut him off before he could complete his though. "I've only been training for a few months, and most of that had been focused on my sharpening my visions."

"Then how did you know?" Adonis Lolonyo asked confused.

"Because you're the only one who doesn't either thunk the tray down and leave or start sneering at even when they think I'm asleep. Our fellow Hetaerae aren't exactly pleased that my visions aren't as controlled as they think they should be."

"They are just jealous." Lolonyo said dismissively. "You are Cassandra, Aphrodite's favorite! They do not see how valuable your powers are to us."

"Fat lot of good these so called powers are doing right now." Jessica grumbled. "I haven't been able to 'see' anything that's been of use since I found out of about those strange gods."

"But that in itself is more than we have been able to do." Her friend reminded her. "We are but warriors who are only useful on the battle field. You and our Lady are the ones who guide us to that point. We need you."

"That's a nice thought." Jessica smiled. "But I just wish it seemed more like I was actually helping, and less like I was Aphrodite's prisoner…."

"The Lady is simply trying to keep you safe." Lolonyo said firmly. "You will see. Once we have won this war, then your powers will no longer be need and you shall be free."

"Yeah, once we win." The seer sighed. _I just wish I knew why we were fighting. I know that Aphrodite wants to defeat Athena but I don't get why. _Jessica sighed and turned her attention to her meal, pushing all questions to the back of her mind.

On a roof top Daichi yawned then shook himself. He had been following Yuki Miaka for at least a week now and nothing interesting had happened. Both she had her friend went to school, went to their respective clubs, then went home. They meet their boyfriends and went out…but they didn't do anything suspicious. Even though the Steel Saint knew he was trying to figure out how Miaka-san was connected Seiryu but he hadn't seen anything that was remotely suspicious.

_Even that boyfriend of hers checks out…. I don't get it. If Seiryu really is up to something then why hasn't she done anything. I really wish I could sense Cosmo, then maybe I would be able to tell. _Yui-san wasn't any more suspicious than her friend. They both looked like normal High School girls. _This this is getting boring. I almost wish that wolf-man would show up again so I would have something to do. Ah well, if he shows up again during a full moon, that will show Sho! _

Daichi had the mistake of mentioning that either the girls or their boy friends might be werewolves to Sho, and all that had done we got him banned from watching any more horror films.

"It might be true." The Steel Saint muttered stubbornly as he watched the girls walk away.

Saori rubbed her forehead as she sat in the command center. The Steel Saints and all the others attached to her had been going over any information pertaining to Seiryu but there was a lot of it. Most was myths and legends but even those couldn't be skipped over because they might provide clues about the dragon gods motives.

Yet nothing had come up yet. What worried her was she had no idea what would prompt a dragon god that had been considered a guardian deity to suddenly start sending it's warriors out to attack people. At least with gods like Poseidon or Hades, they were draw from human archetypes and she could understand….but the reasoning of a beast god? She had thought about sending one of the Saints to question those girl again but….she Hyoga and Shun had both agreed that they didn't have enough cosmo to be warriors. She hesitated to draw them in any further if they weren't involved that deeply with the god so she had just set the Steel Saints after them. If it proved that they were in league with Seiryu or if they were unable to find out any information about Seiryu then they would have to drag the two high school girls in, but until then….

"Saori-ojou-san?" Ushio said uncertainly as he walked up to her.

"What is it?"

"I finally managed to find something." The steel said shifted nervously.

"About Seiryu?" She asked sitting up a little straighter.

"Maybe, we can't be sure yet." The young man admitted. "There was a man named Okuda Einoskue. He traveled to China in the nineteen twenties in order to research the culture there. More specifically….." Ushio paused a little here. "More specifically he was researching the beast gods."

"Do you know if he learned anything?" Saori pressed.

"He found a religious cult that let him translate one of their manuscripts. It was called 'The Universe of the Four Gods'." Ushio stopped to swallow. "We tired to track down the book but…there as only one copy. Shortly after he returned to Japan, he killed his only daughter then committed suicide."

"What happened to that copy?" Saori asked softly. This was important, she could feel it. Whether this was just a hunch or the knowledge of Athena she could say but it would hurt anything to track it down. At the very least the book could contain a clue to what they face.

"A family friend named Ohsugi ended up with it. It was later given to a library somewhere in Tokyo. We haven't been able to find which one it was yet, but we are making progress."

"Have it brought to the Graude Foundation the moment you find it." Athena ordered. "This is important."

"We will, Saori Ojou-san!"

In the midst of Aphrodite's base, Cassandra Jessica was meditating. Even before she had obtained the mask, she had realized that the way to focus the few visions she did receive was to relax into the state. With the mask she was assured of seeing something, but it wasn't always what she wanted to see. She had figured out how to see the past rather effectively, but it was easier to see significant events.

Seeing into the future was unpredictable and still only came to her when it wanted too. Aphrodite was disappointed about that but there was nothing that could be done. After all, her powers were if anything a gift from Apollo not the goddess.

She had been trying to catch a glimpse of anything Athena had done in the past, but she couldn't catch a glimpse of the goddess. Maybe it was because she didn't have enough power to be able to spy on the gods…

Something rocked her world and darkness engulfed her, cutting off all sense of time or place. Fear gripped her heart for half a beat but then she forced herself to calm down. _A vision, finally! _

There was a flash of light and her sense of space returned. She was standing on a street somewhere, a blond girl in a high school uniform. Suddenly the girl turned , and faced a bright light was behind her. It took Jessica a second to realized that there was a person in the middle of the light. She squinted to see who it was and was barely able to make out the figure of a woman. The light woman offered her hand to the girl….and for little more than a second she saw the figure of a woman holding a shield and carrying staff in the light. Then the world collapsed back in on itself. When feeling returned to her, Jessica opened her eyes to darkness, but it was a familiar darkness one that was accompanied by the familiar sensations of her room.

Jessica stood slowly. Visions were always exhausting, but this time seem to be worse. It had been hard to see into the light, but she supposed she should have expected something like that when trying to spy on a goddess. Even if Athena had never been described to her, Jessica was sure that she would have recognized her. Perhaps she was as in tune with her Cosmo as some of Aphrodite's Hetaerae but she doubted anyone could have mistaken the had Cosmo she had felt in her vision for anything but divine.

She made her way over to her chair and sank down into it. Now all that was left was to wait for Eros to come. Once a day he checked to see if she had _seen _anything of importance. It was an ordeal she had to put up with each day, but at least today wouldn't be as bad as usual. _I had better tell him though. He's been harder on me since I made him bring Lady Aphrodite to me. Maybe this way he'll let up a little. _

"She what!?" The goddess's hands tightened on the arms of the throne.

"Says that the priestess of Seiryu will meet with Athena sometime in the near future." Eros repeated to his mistress.

"This is not good." Aphrodite stood and stalked past him. "I want to revive all of Seiryu's former warriors before I started my plan. Using them will confuse Athena and let me weaken her warriors with no cost to myself. However if she realizes that Seiryu isn't the one that's behind this she will become more on guard and start looking again."

"But how will she know that Seiryu isn't the one behind it? That girl was the Priestess, wouldn't it make more sense for Athena to suspect her……" Eros began but the goddess cut him with a gesture.

"Not if she doesn't have the cosmo to back up it up." She snarled.

"But if she was possessed by the god won't Athena sense that?" Eros asked again. Aphrodite turned to glare at her warrior.

"It won't mean anything. Hades possessed on her Saints. No if anything this will show Athena that it isn't Seiryu isn't the one doing these. I have no idea if she has figured out that the girl is the priestess or if they've just meet by chance but if Athena finds out what she was…" Aphrodite bit her lip as she thought. "Even if she has no cosmo that girl is still a Priestess that has severed as a vessel for her god. If he had returned she would be the first to know of it. She might be unaware of this little fact but Athena will now." The goddess sighed and turned abruptly. "Either way she will realize something is wrong. Eros!"

"Yes, my lady?"

"I want you to let that wolf thing loose." The goddess said waving her hand. "He tracked those girls across half the city right? Tell him that he can hunt down that Seiryu priestess if he wants."

"Is that wise Milady?" Eros asked frowning.

"Athena's Saints have already seen him, and since he went after those girls I don't think anyone will be surprised if he manages to finish what he started." She turned to look back at Eros. "But see to it that the wolf doesn't make it back here. I've grown tired of putting up with his appearance…and his smell." She added wrinkling up her nose.

"It shall be as you wish, Milady." Eros said smiling as the goddess walked away. "May I ask where your going."

"I'm going." The goddess snapped. "To speed up by little project. It will be good to have other warriors on our side. I just hope they are better look than that idiot wolf."

_It's starting to get colder. _Yui noted as she made her walked home. The tennis club had stayed longer today to practice for a tournament and Miaka had gone on ahead with take. _And Keisuke has a test to study for….._ He had offered to walk her home but she had told him that she would be fine. Absolutely nothing had happened.

After Miaka had told everyone had about her confrontation with Shun Yui had been torn between fear and anger. She had half expected someone to be waiting outside their school the next day, but there hadn't been anyone. That didn't stop her from glancing over her shoulder, half expecting one of the Saints to pop up and force her to tell the truth. The Saints had also been connected to the Graude Foundation. She wasn't sure if that was still the case or if that had ended after the Galaxian Tournament, but she still worried that her parents would get a call from the foundation. If Graude Foundation did that then she was sure her workaholic would be thrilled about it, and it wasn't like she could actually tell them why she didn't want to go.

_Why don't I want to tell them? _A part of her keep whispering. _Is it because I'm being cautious or is it because I don't want anyone else to know about what happened to me ? Because I do not want to go back to that time?_

"It's because I'm careful." She said aloud to herself. "We don't know if we can trust them or even why their so interested in us. We don't really even have any idea what they Saints are!" But she couldn't get rid of that voice in her head.

Suddenly the back of her neck prickled. She whirled around but there was no one behind her. The former priestess laughed nervously to herself. _Now I'm getting paranoid…._

There was a short cut across the playground her home. She didn't normally use it since she liked to take the longer route to her house but today she was willing to sacrifice pleasure for speed. Turning left she entered the playground. There' wasn't anyone here but that wasn't unusually. It was an old playground and there were other amusements closer to home than this one.

A growl was the only warning she heard as something large entered her preferable vision. The feeling of nervous tension she had made dodge right even before she knew what it was. Her foot hit the edge of the sandbox and she over balanced. She sat down hard in the soft sand as claws scythed through the place she had been just a half second before.

She knew who it was even before the figure stopped moving.

"Ashitare." She breathed as the wolf man turned to look at her. Somehow in the midst of all the excitement of finding out about the Saints, the threat the Seiryu warrior posed had seemed diminished.

He growled. Desperately Yui groped behind her for something, anything, she could use as a weapon. The wolf man took a step toward her and she threw the handful of sand into his eyes. She scrambled to her feet as Ashitare howled in pain, and took off running. She didn't even stop to think of a where she was going, all that mattered was getting away. Ashitare howled and she ducked just as the wolf man sailed over her head. He slammed into the jungle gym, getting tangled in the bars. She didn't stop, but started running. There was a busy road near here and if she could just get there….!

There was a shriek of metal behind her and then a sharp howl as Ashitare tore free of the metal bars. Fear made her accelerate but Ashitare was faster. He ran past her then skidded to a stop right in front of her. Hear hammering she tired to stop and turn. Claws came down as she jerked backwards but she wasn't fast enough. Pain lanced through her and she knew she screamed. Blood from the marks stained the ground as she crumple. Ashitare gave a lopsided grin and rushed toward her. All thoughts seemed to feel from her mind and all she could do was stare into his mad golden eyes.

"Get back!" The shout startled both of them and snapped Yui out of her daze. She pushed herself away from the wolf man just as something collided with him sending him flying. He hit the ground hard and went tumbling away from them.

"Are you alright?" Her rescuer asked as he dropped down next to her. It was a boy a little younger than her dressed in blue armor with a scar on one cheek. He frowned when he saw the blood. "I'll get you help…" Ashitare scrambled to his feet.

"Don't interfere!" The wolf growled. Her reassure shook his head.

"I'm not going to let you near her!" The boy dropped into a crouch, then launched himself at Ashitare, who ducked under the punch, then rammed his fist into the boy. He flipped and landed on his feet as Yui ran past the wolf while he was distracted. She paused when she saw a baseball bat lying abandoned nearby. She glanced back at the boy and wolf who were now circling each other. Common sense said to run, and run far. Last time a Saint had faced off against Ashitare they had come out unharmed. But there was a nagging sense that she should be doing something. Rushing into the battle would be stupid and might get both her and the boy killed but…. _I can watch. _

She glanced back at the battle and froze. Ashitare had managed to get his hands around the Saints throat. Her eyes returned to the bat then, glanced back at the young man who was struggling to breath. _I'm an idiot! _Yui dove toward the bat and grabbed it, then ran back the way she had come.

She tired not to think about what she was doing or what could happen as she brought the bat down on Ashitare's head. The stick of wood did nothing to the wolf thing. He turned and growled at her.

But the distraction had caused the Seiryu warrior to loosen his grip slightly. The Saint managed to pull the wolfs hands off his neck and land a kick that made the Ashitare stagger back. She took a step back as the wolf growled and backhanded her.

All the air was blown out her and she went flying. _This is going to hurt…_ Her mind registered just as she slammed into something solid and darkness claimed her.

Ushio gasped as Yui hid the tree and slid to the ground. He couldn't tell if she was unconscious or worse and the wolf thing in front of him wasn't about to let him go check.

He and Daichi had been switching, and the smaller boy had stopped to giving him a quick update. Then he had left and Ushio had continued on toward Yui's house. That was when he had seen her running for her life from something that had to be the wolf thing called Ashitare. There was a small radio in the helmets of the Steel Cloths so he had been able ask Sho and Daichi for help but there hadn't been time for him to wait for their help. He had managed to saver her but he had underestimate it's speed and it had almost choked him to death.

_It's all my fault that she was put in danger again. _He glared at the creature. A yellow blur slammed into it's back, and Daichi flipped off just as Sho landed a kick on it's side.

"Is everyone alright?" Sho asked as he landed.

"Yui…" Ushio glanced in her direction . Sho glanced at her then cursed.

"Daichi!" He yelled to the shorter boy. "Go check on her!"

"Right!" The smallest member of the Steel Saints ran toward the fallen girl. Ashitare started to lunge after him but Ushio and Sho placed themselves between the wolf and his prey.

"Not this time!" Ushio shouted as he rushed the wolf-man. Ashitare tried to grab him but this time he respected the wolf's speed. The Steels Saint's punch slammed into his opponents face. The wolf went flying backward, but managed to land on his feet. He spat blood, and shook his head.

"You will pay for that!" Ashitare howled and started to run toward him.

"Get out the way Ushio!" Sho's voice sounded, and the red headed Steel Saint jumped up. A blast of wind from the turbines attached to his arm slammed into Ashitare and blasted that wolf back into the ruins of the jungle gym.

Ushio landed next to Sho. He glanced at his leader as he shifted his stance….then realized that there was a horrified look on the elders face. Puzzled he looked glanced back at Ashitare, then gasped himself.

One of the bars of the mangled jungle gym had been pointed outward. Sho's blast had slammed the wolf man into it and the bar had gone straight through his chest. Almost as if not noticing what had happened Ashitare pulled himself free of the make-shift spear and actually started to run toward them….then stopped in mid-stride and collapsed. There was a puzzled look on his face as the light faded from his eyes.

They watched him tensely for what felt like an entering. It seemed strange that such a little thing had killed him. It was Daichi's voice who broke the silence.

"Are werewolves suppose to change back when they die?" the youngest Steel Saint asked. Sho groaned.

"I though I told you to shut up about were-wolves." He said as the walked over to him. "Is she….?"

"She's still alive." Daichi said and the other two sighed in relief.

"We should…" Ushio started to say.

"Sho!" The Steel Saints all turned in surprise.

"Hyoga, what are you doing here?" The leader of the Steel Saints asked in surprise.

"I felt that things cosmo again." The Cygnus Saint was glaring at the dead wolf, but quickly turned back the unconscious girl. "What happened? Why is she bleeding?"

"Ashitare managed to get her a little." Daichi explained. "It looks weird than it is though. She's unconscious but she seem to be fine."

"We should get her checked over." Ushio said. Hyoga nodded right as something grey slammed into him. The Steel Saints stepped back then froze when they realized that the Saint was wrestling with what appeared to be a large dog.

"I think that's a wolf!" Daichi shouted as Hyoga threw the dog off. As the blond climbed to his feet, Ushio examined the animal.

"I think you right." The Marin Steel Saint said in surprise. It sprang at them, and Hyoga landed a vicious kick that caused the wolf to let loose a yip and send it flying toward where Ashitare's body lay. It hit the ground there and didn't move.

"Where in the hell did that come from?" Hyoga asked. Sho and Ushio shook their heads helplessly.

"Um…guys?" Daichi said nervously. He pointed toward the body. Everyone look, then gaped. The bodies of Ashitare and the wolf lay. Both were fading away. The grew more transparent every second until at least their outlines had faded away.

"What in the hell…?" No one knew what to say, but just stood staring at the spot where the bodies had been laying. Hyoga was the first to move. He dropped down and picked up the unconscious Yui.

"We have to get her somewhere safe." He said as the others nodded. "I'm going to take her back to Graude Mansion."

"Saori ojou-san." Tatsumi said softly. She looked up from her desk. It would have been useless to stay in the command center, so she had returned to the mansion and had contented herself with looking over the scant information they had.

"Yes, Tatsumi?" She asked as she set down the papers she had been looking at.

"This was center over. It was asked that it be given over to you immediately." The butler held up a book. The cover read 'The Universe of the Four Gods'.

"That was fast. Let me see it immediately." Tatsumi crossed the room and started to hand it to her. When she reached out to touch it however, a shock ran through and she jerked her hand back. The book fell onto the desk. She stared at in shock.

"Ojou-san, are you alright!?"

"I'm fine." She said distracted. "Just startled is all." _That was…cosmo! _She reached over and gently picked up the volume. This time there was no shock. _Why does this book have Cosmo? _The goddess eased open the cover and, handling each page gingerly, began to read.


End file.
